Tennessee PTA

Tennessee PTA is the largest all-volunteer advocacy organization in Tennessee for youth and children. Website(tnpta.org)
Recent Tweets @tennesseepta
Proposed Bylaw Amendment for the 2024 Tennessee PTA Annual Meeting

The following proposed amendment will be voted on by the voting delegates at the 2024 Tennessee PTA Annual Meeting.

Bylaws Amendment One

To Amend Article IX:
Duties of Officers, Section 6: Treasurer, Letter D. to remove the named officers who may disburse funds (President, President-elect, and/or Treasurer).

Currently Reads:
Disbursement of funds shall be by bonded officers only: President, President-elect, and/or Treasurer.  The funds of the Tennessee PTA shall be disbursed only in accordance with the budget approved by the Board of Directors or pursuant to an appropriation especially made by the Board of Directors.

If the motion is adopted it would read:
Disbursement of funds shall be by bonded officers only.  The funds of the Tennessee PTA shall be disbursed only in accordance with the budget approved by the Board of Directors or pursuant to an appropriation especially made by the Board of Directors.

Rationale: By specifically naming who disburses funds from the Tennessee PTA checking account, this may become an issue when one or more officer positions are vacant.  As all Tennessee PTA Officers are duly elected and bonded officers of the Board of Directors, this allows the Executive Committee the ability to continue to do the business of the Association should one or more officer positions become vacant.  Currently, the President-Elect position is vacant.

Text
Radon Action Month in Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee has proclaimed January 2024 as “Radon Action Month.”

Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that threatens the health of all Tennesseans. Radon is responsible for an estimated 21,000 deaths per year. Did you know that 1 in 4 homes in Tennessee tests high for radon?

Radon occurs naturally and can accumulate in a residence or other buildings such as schools. About one in four homes, tested through the Tennessee Radon Program, finds levels above the acceptable level. 

Tennessee PTA promotes information about Radon Action Month as a part of our adopted April 2023 Resolution: Radon Testing. The resolution calls upon councils and local PTA units to educate their PTA memberships and communities about the dangers of radon and how to test for radon.

A radon test of your home is the only way to discover what is the radon level. Any home may have elevated level of radon, even if other homes in the same neighborhood do not. Get a free test kit from the state government while supplies last: Free Home Test

The State of Tennessee’s Radon Program information can be found here. You can also click an interactive map to see the number of tests and results for each county in Tennessee: TN Radon Map.

image

The EPA action level for radon is 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) which means there will be approximately 12,672 radioactive disintegrations in one liter of air during a 24-hour period. What do those numbers mean? Living in a home with a level of 4 pCi/L is roughly the equivalent of smoking 8 cigarettes per day. The first step in reducing your radon exposure is to test your home and know your number.

While the average radon concentration in the indoor air of America’s homes is about 1.3 pCi/L The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established 4 pCi/L as an action level in which one should initiate measures to reduce the amount of radon in a home. However, there is no safe level of radon. The EPA recommends that if the radon level detected in a home is between 2 and 4 pCi/L, steps should be taken to reduce it to below 2 pCi/L.

Text
Tennessee PTA Opposes Vouchers Programs

Tennessee PTA Opposes
Vouchers Programs

November 28, 2023
Re: Tennessee PTA Opposes Vouchers Programs
Greetings,
The Tennessee Congress of Parents and Teachers, Inc. (Tennessee PTA), opposes all voucher programs. We believe voucher programs will ultimately lead to a reduction in public school funding. We stand by our commitment to support public schools and believe that our tax dollars should be allocated to this purpose. The Tennessee PTA believes that all parties should be accountable for every tax dollar spent. In order to ensure that taxes support every child’s education, we must maintain our commitment to a free educational system while also ensuring those in charge of managing the funds are responsible and transparent in their actions.

Our Position Statement adopted January 2022 states, “The Tennessee PTA advocates that funds raised by general taxation for educational purposes should be administered by public officials and should not be used to support privately operated schools or any non-public school or education program through tuition tax credits, education savings accounts, vouchers, block grants, or other means because of the negative impact to the public schools of the state and nation. The Tennessee PTA stands behind fully funding public education for all students.”

Tennessee PTA’s mission is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

Best Regards,
Dana Price
Tennessee PTA President
www.tnpta.org

Text
TDOE Public Opportunities on School Letter Grades

Throughout the fall, the department is inviting all Tennesseans to participate in public engagement opportunities on best practices for determining School Letter Grades, which will measure how the state’s K-12 schools are serving students and helping them succeed academically. 

In addition, Tennesseans are invited to submit public comment on their top priorities for measuring a school’s academic success, and how the state should measure progress towards those priorities. Public comment can be submitted to schoollettergrades@tnedu.gov by September 15, 2023. 

The School Letter Grades Public Town Hall schedule is below: 

View the department’s Facebook page for additional logistics information.  

Text
Memphis-Delta Region Statewide Leadership Training
image

The rotation for the 2023 Statewide Leadership Training is:
Southeast Region - July 27 (Loftis Middle School, Hixson)
First Tennessee Region - July 31 (Basler Library, Northeast State Community College)
East Tennessee Region - August 1 (Tennessee PTA State Office, Knoxville)
Mid-Cumberland and South Central Regions - August 4 (TBD)
Memphis Delta Region - August 5 (Schilling Farms Elementary School, Collierville)

Text
East Tennessee Region Statewide Leadership Training
image

The rotation for the 2023 Statewide Leadership Training is:
Southeast Region - July 27 (Loftis Middle School, Hixson)
First Tennessee Region - July 31 (Basler Library, Northeast State Community College)
East Tennessee Region - August 1 (Tennessee PTA State Office, Knoxville)
Mid-Cumberland and South Central Regions - August 4 (TBD)
Memphis Delta Region - August 5 (Schilling Farms Elementary School, Collierville)

Text
First Tennessee Region Statewide Leadership Training
image

The rotation for the 2023 Statewide Leadership Training is:
Southeast Region - July 27 (Loftis Middle School, Hixson)
First Tennessee Region - July 31 (Basler Library, Northeast State Community College)
East Tennessee Region - August 1 (Tennessee PTA State Office, Knoxville)
Mid-Cumberland and South Central Regions - August 4 (TBD)
Memphis Delta Region - August 5 (Schilling Farms Elementary School, Collierville)

Text
Southeast Region Statewide Leadership Training
image

The rotation for the 2023 Statewide Leadership Training is:
Southeast Region - July 27 (Loftis Middle School, Hixson)
First Tennessee Region - July 31 (Basler Library at Northeast State Community College)
East Tennessee Region - August 1 (Tennessee PTA Office, Knoxville)
Mid-Cumberland and South Central Regions - August 4 (TBD)
Memphis Delta Region - August 5 (Schilling Farms Elementary School, Collierville)

Text
Final 2021-23 Term Newsletter

The final Tennessee PTA Bulletin newsletter for the 2021-23 is now available to read at https://tnpta.org/news/june_2023_final_newsletter.pdf

Message From the President
The 2021-2023 term is completed. While the term for the 2021-2023 board and officers is nearing the end, I am very proud of this board of directors. We’ve done some heavy lifting. We were on the ground co-sponsoring town halls about student funding, webinars informing about student funding; we promoted the refreshed national family-school partnerships, and advocated with a legislative tracker, adopted new resolutions and position statements. We celebrated student artists at the Student Awards Ceremony. We partnered with other like-minded organizations to amplify our advocacy voice. We partnered to host a statewide mental health of students town hall. We communicated through newsletters, social media channels, a blog, MemberHub emails, and our website. This board has done a lot. And we sold the state office building in Nashville and re-established a new office building in Knoxville.

Indeed, what a two-year term!

This newsletter is filled with the required information: our financial report, membership report, legislative report, and board report. We also have some pictures from our celebration at the Students Award Ceremony held at the Brentwood Library on June 3rd!

Will you help us to remain an advocate for children and youth? Help us by joining the PTA for the 2023-2024 year!

PTA was founded as an advocacy association. Read our PTA Mission statement—you will find the word advocate in the statement. What other parent-teacher group has been around for 125 years advocating for children and youth? Not one single organization beyond PTA!
Dwight Hunter
President, Tennessee PTA

Text
Joint PTA Statement on Covenant School

It is critical that we immediately address access to guns—especially assault weapons—and the social, economic and behavioral causes that lead to the multi-faceted problem and cycle of violence.
Visit PTA.org/GunViolencePrevention and join us in demanding action on gun violence.

image
Text
Single A Premium Theme :: Version 1.5.2 :: By Storyware